On the Role of Steel Composition in High Convection Quenching
On the Role of Steel Composition in High Convection Quenching
Thursday, October 23, 2025: 10:50 AM
140E (Huntington Place Convention Center)
Rapid or high convection quenching (HCQ) techniques remain unadopted on a wide scale, despite a first introduction of the concept in the late 1960’s. Counterintuitively, HCQ in water has been shown to produce less distortion and cracking while yielding higher hardness and improved fatigue performance. Superior fatigue performance is normally attributed to high compressive residual stresses in the surface region where the cooling rate is highest. The interplay between (rapid) cooling rates and martensite formation, both athermal and thermally activated, appears to be instrumental in understanding the introduction of compressive residual stresses and the enhanced fatigue performance obtained through HCQ. This understanding enables the exploitation of HCQ and a wider application in industry.
This contribution seeks to demonstrate the influence of the composition in various alloys (mainly carbon, chromium, and nitrogen) on the HCQ response in steels. Applying rapid cooling rates through high frequency ultrasound in aqueous quenchants, this work aims to further characterize the martensitic transformation in selected key alloys. The alloy selection includes combinations of carbon and chromium contents and involves additional alloying with nitrogen by high temperature solution nitriding. From the selection of alloys, the individual contributions of the alloying elements to the HCQ response are elucidated.